San Diego, California Talk Radio Station - 760 KFMB AM - 760kfmbWiretap recordings released in San Diego black market baby case

SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - Undercover wiretap recordings have been released to News 8 in the case of a San Diego-based baby selling ring. The audio tapes show how easy it was for babies to be bought and sold on the black market.

One woman heard on the recordings is Taylor Stein, a Los Angeles mother who had agreed to pay $180,000 for what she believed was going to be a blonde-haired baby boy delivered by a surrogate mother.

Stein became an unwilling participant in the black market baby ring run by Poway surrogacy attorney Theresa Erickson, Las Vegas resident Carla Chambers and Maryland attorney Hilary Neiman.

Erickson, Chambers and Neiman have all pleaded guilty to federal crimes associated with the baby farming operation.

Taylor Stein was recorded by the FBI when she telephoned Neiman and expressed her frustration over the lack of information on who donated the sperm and egg to create her unborn, surrogate child.

Hilary Neiman wiretap recording (GRAPHIC CONTENT):
http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/kfmb/misc/Neiman.mp3

"We have a huge problem here and I mean huge," Stein said during the wiretap recording. "My child now has zero genetic information. You have sent me lies. I am looking at two blonde donors but I bet you my baby doesn't come out blonde haired. Let's make a bet, okay?"

"Now I really don't care because I would have taken a black baby, a blue baby, I don't give a shit," Stein continued. "But this is a fraud and you are not going to make a fool out of me. You are a sociopath. You are a flesh peddler. I am going to have the Federalies at your front door."

Stein recently told her story to Anderson Cooper on his syndicated, daytime talk show.

"I had false documents. I had information on the donors that was fictitious," said Stein, who helped the FBI bust the baby-selling ring wide open and ended up adopting the baby born by the surrogate mother.

Federal prosecutors say Erickson, Chamber and Neiman ran an illegal a baby farming operation where surrogate mothers were flown to the Ukraine to undergo in vitro fertilization.

Once the surrogate became pregnant and the sex of the baby was known, intended parents were solicited to sign illegal contracts and purchase the babies for more $100,000 each, according to court documents.

Eventually, some of the surrogate mothers became suspicious and went to the FBI.

In one recorded conversation, Chambers is grilled by an outside attorney questioning the legality of the baby-selling operation. In California, surrogacy contracts are only legal if they are signed prior to the pregnancy.

Carla Chambers wiretap recording:
http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/kfmb/misc/Chambers.mp3

"I do not comprehend why you think this is still a surrogacy when you didn't have a contract before she got pregnant," the attorney said to Chambers on the wiretap recording. "What makes you think you can get away with that?"

"I'm not a lawyer. I'm not a lawyer," responded Chambers.

Erickson is also caught on tape talking about fraudulent insurance claims that helped pay for the births in California at taxpayer expense. She is questioned by an agent pretending to be an insurance auditor investigating claims addressed to Erickson's company, Conceptual Options.

Theresa Erickson wiretap recording:
http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/kfmb/misc/Erickson.mp3

"These women don't necessarily pay the (medical) bills. I have to pay the bills," Erickson said on tape. "For these women, a lot of them will use the office address because we want to make sure the bills come to us."

Jennifer Lahl, director of the Center for Bioethics and Culture near San Francisco believes the $6 billion surrogacy industry needs to be regulated.

"Our neighbors in Canada prohibit the buying and selling of babies. You can't buy and sell eggs. You can't buy and sell sperm. You can't pay a surrogate to have your child," said Lahl.

She calls the United States the "wild west" of in vitro fertilization.

"It's just an industry that is operating with so little oversight and so little regulation that I don't think the Theresa Erickson scandal is unique," Lahl said.

Erickson has pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges and is set to be sentenced in San Diego federal court on February 24th. She faces up to five years in prison, although her actual sentence likely will be much lighter.

Erickson's attorney declined to be interviewed for this report.